Day 12

The days of the free internet connection in the conference site in Venice seem so very far away, and right about now I'd pay double what I did to get the wireless connection I had in Bologna (and that was expensive as it was).
Thing is, I'm now in the hotel in Rome, it's about 00:15, Ohad and me are back from a very stylish pub we found in a neighborhood called Testaccio (after a small hill on which it resides), I fire up the laptop and lo and behold - the tech gods have smiled upon me and there seems to be a semi-stable and, above all, free wifi connection I can use. I don't like updating the blog from internet places because I need time and to feel relaxed to properly express myself, so for the past few days I haven't really told you about what happened in Bologna, or Firenze, or Toscana, and Rome (so far), and what's worse is I haven't even uploaded any pictures!
I'm sorry about that, really, but you're going to have to show a little more patience with me - the connection doesn't really allow me to upload much of anything, and I'll have to be a bit brief about what happened till now:
Ok, after that day in Bologna, which really was magical, I went to San Lazzaro the next morning. It was really weird - every time I am abroad, I feel uncomfortable until I come back to Jerusalem. It's more then feeling uncomfortable, it's feeling like a fish out of the water, a feeling of insecurity. And in San Lazzaro that feeling went away, I don't know, on one hand I wasn't really home, because Jerusalem is home now, and on the other hand I felt really comfortable: I knew were I was, I never got lost, I even took shortcuts I remembered. In any case, I got to see both our neighbors still alive and well, and even catch up with a friend and his family. Nothing has changed - they are all still there just the way I left them, as if they have been waiting for me, preserved in a big jar of formaldehyde.
That took two days, and on the spare time we had left, we got to drive to Maranello, where Ferrari's are made and tested, and where there's a big museum full of old models. It was very cool, since it all happened on the day of the 60th birthday of the Ferrari namebrand. A LOT of people where there, a lot of beautiful cars, and even 9 jet planes flew by in a whole bunch of formations. Quite the celebration.
Then, we left Bologna and we drove to Firenze. Driving felt great - I love our car (which we decided on calling Maurizio) and we got there through small back-roads in about two hours. Thing is, by then it was unbelievably hot and crowded, so we left pretty early after seeing all we could see in one day (which wasn't a lot, but it sure felt enough).
After leaving Firenze, we decided on settling in Montepulciano for the night - a small Toscan town, which is comprised of a small bunch of red brick-houses huddled together on quite a steep cliff-side. The next morning we toured a few of the local wineries, after consulting a local wine shop in town. Very, very cool endevour that is, touring local wineries - I whole-heartedly recommend it.
Well, after cooling off, we drove very fast on the autostrada, south, towards Rome. We found the hotel, which is very nice, and we've been doing all of the attractions for the past three days, trying not to miss any of the must see's.
I have to finish, I've rambled for long enough anyway and I have a busy day ahead of me.
Ciao!